


Stones in Different Hands

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-10 03:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21459766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: "Tony almost couldn’t bear to look, but his eyes were dragged to the speaker anyway.'FRIDAY, stop him-'Peter snapped."
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 306





	Stones in Different Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be honest, guys. This one feels... oddly personal, and I can't even begin to tell you why. Just know that I kinda poured my heart and soul into this story.
> 
> Anyway, this story was inspired by a fanart I saw on Pinterest. It's incredible and the watermark on it say Ellejart and my beta reader said that the name he found on Twitter/Instagram was Nikolay Mochkin. If you know of this artist, and this information isn't correct, _please_ let me know so I can correct it. I want to give credit where credit is due (which is also why I'm not posting a copy of the piece here). Anyway, check them out, the art is wonderful.

He had no idea where things had gone so wrong. It was all happening so fast, just a blur of shapes and sounds and colors around him.

Thanos got the gauntlet, but Tony got the stones. A blast from almost nowhere knocked them away and Tony ended up on the ground. When he got his bearings again and lifted himself from the dust and dirt, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“I… am… inevitable,” Thanos panted, smirking a smug smile as he lifted his hand again and snapped his fingers.

All that followed was the hollow, muted ring of metal against metal. It didn’t work. Thanos turned his hand over and- yes. No stones. He hadn’t gotten them back. The vice around Tony’s chest loosened slightly.

But… where were the stones?

Then a voice caught everyone’s attention.

“Fuck off, you mean purple grape.”

Tony almost couldn’t bear to look, but his eyes were dragged to the speaker anyway.

He was just as deceptively small as Tony remembered him from years before - just as he had been ten minutes ago when Tony saw him through the chaos. He was bloody, a hard look in his eyes. His suit was still working just as Tony had designed it to, Karen no doubt in his ear. He shined, literally.

Peter Parker kneeled, alone, his right hand lifted as the nanites integrated the Infinity Stones into his suit.

Tony felt his whole being seize in the second before Peter moved.

“FRIDAY, stop him-”

Peter snapped.

There was a flash of white and rainbow. It blinded Tony for only a few seconds.

The world around him still looked the same. Thanos and his army slowly seemed to just pop out of existence. The base was still ruined beyond even what Tony could repair. Steve was at Tony’s side, Rhodey and Sam just a step behind him. Pepper landed heavily by his shoulder.

Everyone seemed fine.

But he couldn’t see the one person he needed to see. The one person he needed to know was alright.

He forced himself up, ignoring the hands on his arms, the grips shoulders. He brushed them away, feeling his pulse skyrocket as he stumbled forward. There was a darkened spot on the ground nearly fifteen feet away, cleared of debris. No one was there.

Where was he? Where was Peter?

Tony’s eyes swept over the ground and sky, searching out the teenager.

“Tony, breathe!” he heard someone call after him. He was breathing, wasn’t he? He had to breathe. But it didn’t matter, because he couldn’t get enough air anyway. He couldn’t breathe enough and-

God, what if his kid wasn’t breathing?

“Peter?” he called, stepping jerkily forward again, eyes scanning high and low for the spider-themed hero. “Peter!”

It took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t the only one calling for the kid. There were almost countless people around Tony, blurry and faceless, shouting Peter’s name. The entire world seemed fuzzy.

This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real.

They couldn’t find him, and it absolutely was not real. No way, no how.

“Peter!”

He was on his knees then, helmet on and FRIDAY’s scanners searching for heat sources. There was one beneath some ruble not a foot in front of him. Suddenly he was shoving at dirt and rock and concrete as fast as he could.

Tony lifted one last piece of concrete and shoved it to the side and-

There he was - small and broken, burnt across the side of his face. His eyes were closed almost peacefully, like he could be asleep.

“Vitals, FRIDAY,” he demanded of the AI.

_“Pulse is weak, but there, boss. He’s losing blood and his AI is reporting low blood oxygen levels. He needs supplemental oxygen soon. We could lose him any moment.”_

Tony was sure his hands would be shaking in not for his suit. Not Peter… No, this couldn’t happen to Peter. All of this was because of Peter. He wouldn’t be able to live if his kid died this way, after everything.

“Healing factor?”

_“Seems to be hindered at the moment.”_

Tony didn’t remember picking Peter up out of the hole he’d been blown into. He didn’t remember engaging the Iron Spider’s mask, and nearly taking off right there. He didn’t remember every person who stepped into his way and grabbed at him, stopping him. Not until it was Pepper, right there. Right in front of him.

Her hands where on his mask, tears in her eyes. She was saying something, begging with him over whatever it was she wanted him to do. But he couldn’t hear her. He couldn’t make out anything she said to him.

He just knew he had to get out. He knew that he had to get Peter help.

Didn’t she understand?! Peter was going to die! And Tony needed to do something about it!

A ringing in his ears drowned everything out, but suddenly a circle of golden sparks was opening a portal in front of him. Several people guided him through it. He clutched Peter tightly, holding him close and hardly allowing anyone else to look at the kid - his kid.

It might have taken meer minutes, but it could have been hours to Tony.

On the other side of the portal, he found himself standing in a lab. It might have been underground, but it was well lit and the kind of high-tech that Tony dreamt of sometimes. Tony could do a lot of things, but this? This was incredible. Not necessarily better, said a little voice shoved deep down inside his head, but incredible. The area was a lot sleeker, and much more elegant than Tony usually worked with.

He was almost distracted by his awe of the lab.

But then there were hands on Peter. Someone was trying to take him away.

“No!” he yelled. “You can’t take him! If you take him, he’ll die!”

He didn’t hear a response, which was not comforting. All the voices around him seemed to only come through as distant buzzing.

A quick alert message popped up before his eyes and then his suit was retreating, the nanites receding back into their compartment. In the seconds it took for Tony to find himself suitless in Pepper’s arms, Peter’s body was taken from him and placed on a table.

“Peter!” He yelled. “No, Peter!”

“Shh,” Pepper’s shaky voice soothed into his ear. “They’ve got him.”

“I need to have him! He’s not safe! He’s going to die!”

“They’re helping him, Tony. They’ve got him…”

Then Peter’s suit was gone, its own nanites having retreated as well, leaving the kid in the suit Tony had given him… what? Almost seven years ago? And it- it wasn’t enough! It didn’t have enough equipment! It couldn’t keep him alive!

“No!” He shouted. He struggled to his knees. When had he fallen? “No! He needs his suit!”

He needed the protection. He wasn’t safe without it. Tony made sure he would be safe.

“Help me get him out of here,” he heard Pepper say to someone.

A new set of hands were on him again, this one much bigger and stronger than his wife’s.

But they couldn’t take him away! He had to save Peter!

“Peter!”

Tony was lifted a little unceremoniously. He fought against the grip, pushing as hard as he could against what might have been singed blue fabric. Over on the table, Peter seemed to shift, a small sound coming out. It tore through Tony’s heart like his chest was full of shrapnel again.

“Peter!” he cried.

“Tony!” a strained, destroyed voice returned.

Then the lab doors closed behind them and Tony wasn’t sure he could breathe anymore.

*

Thanks to Strange and Shuri’s quick thinking, Peter was treated in the Wakandan princess’ lab as quickly as was possible. Tony hindered the process a little bit, but no one blamed him for that.

Though it had since been nearly four days, and he had yet to wake up again after that first time.

And Tony was by his side at every possible second.

He left long enough to shower every so often, but for the most part, he ate when someone brought something and slept when his head finally fell and found a comfortable(ish) position on his shoulder. Pepper had been there until a day ago when she went to take Morgan back home from her grandparents’ place. They called in the mornings and then again in the evenings. More than once, Tony had left the phone on speaker and let his daughter ramble on as if talking to Peter.

After all, he was her big brother.

Tony had been awake for all of an hour when he’d had to get up and go to the bathroom. He tried to tell himself that he didn’t need to be in a hurry. Peter likely wouldn’t wake up in the few seconds he was gone. Peter would be fine until he got back.

So, naturally, he lost his breath for a second when he stepped back into the room to find the kid’s eyes open and peering drowsily around at his surroundings.

“Peter,” he said, hurrying to the bedside.

“Mis’er Stark,” Peter slurred, a smile pulling at his features.

Tony was relieved the burns had healed so well. Peter’s enhanced healing hadn’t kicked in until nearly eighteen hours ago, marking him finally in the clear by Shuri and her team.

“Hey, kid,” he greeted. He sniffed against the unbidden tears that were forming and blurring his vision.

“Where’m I?”

Tony sat down in his chair again, his hand finding its way into Peter’s hair. It was tangled and messy, but clean.

“Wakanda.”

“Wooooowwwww,” Peter exclaimed slowly. “That’s a long way from home, Mr. Stark.”

Tony smiled. “Yeah, bud. It is.”

“Why’m I here?”

“Well, that would be because _someone_ did something incredibly stupid. Any ideas who that might be this time, underoos?” Tony teased at him. He almost wanted to be mad, but… How could he? Peter saved the universe and lived to tell the tale. Tony wasn’t quite sure he would have been able to pull that stunt off.

“‘M sorry, Mr. Stark-”

Tony sighed and pulled Peter gently into a hug.

“Just don’t do something like that again, got it, kid?” he said into Peter’s hair.

“Promise. I won’t put that on your conscience…”

Tony scoffed. “To hell with that, kid. You’re not just my responsibility, now. You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not. You’re my kid.”

Peter’s hands clutched at Tony like he was a tether, and honestly? Tony was so happy to be that for him. He nodded into Tony’s chest with a shaky breath that might have been a sob.

“I love you, Pete.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, guys! If you happened to see any typos, feel free to let me know and I will go in and fix them. I hope you like this, comments and kudos are always appreciated. Please let me know what you though! Thanks!


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